With election counting at over 70%, political commentator and law professor Richard Calland says South Africans have chosen to vote for the devil they know rather than to turn away from the African National Congress (ANC).

They have given the ANC another five years, but it has shot across the bows of the ANC, it has taken 4% or 5% off the ANC's share of the vote in the national level compared to 2014. It has given the party nationally below 60% and that 60% is a physiological barrier for the governing party.

— Richard Calland, Political commentator and law professor

He says 57%, 58% is a good result for Cyril Ramaphosa.

He needed a result that is sufficiently big enough for him to get the opposition factions within his party off of his back. In many ways, 57% 58% is the ideal outcome for South Africa at this point.

— Richard Calland, Political commentator and law professor

Calland notes that if the ANC hangs on to the majority in Gauteng which is the economic hub, then it would appear that voters in the province bought into the notion that Ramaphosa is the best person to lead at this time.

It is clear is that the electorate is unlikely to tolerate another five years of corruption, he adds.

The overall result shows a very bad night for the opposition because all the conditions were there for them to advance considerably.